"Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway (and a zillion other things), bought an island off the coast of Connecticut. When local authorities wouldn't let him build a wind turbine, he seceded from the United States. Part of that meant issuing his own money adorned with the faces of friends and family. This is the only picture I could find on the web for the currency of North Dumpling Island."

"Was in Hong Kong in the 1980's and got this tiny 1 cent bill in change at a store. Was worth far less than a penny. The dime is for size comparison. Tattered after all these years, but a curiosity I always remembered."

"Not exactly a coin per se, but I found this in my collection and couldn't identify it until the advent of the World Wide Web. It's two scruples, an apothecary weight used in the days before electronic scales and prepackaged medicines. Pharmacists used a balance beam scale to measure the appropriate amount of medicine to a customer. One would put the appropriate weights on one side and then pour the powdered drug on the other until the balance was centered. Stamped in Philadelphia and New York, date unknown."